Distributed Control Systems (DCS) are typically used to monitor and control processing and flow of materials in industrial plants. The materials may include production related materials, such as hot oil and gaseous products in an oil refinery, as well as production support materials, such as cooling water or steam. Several different materials may be simultaneously moved, used, treated processed, and so on during operation of the plant. Proper control and monitoring of material flow in such plants is therefore crucial to efficiency and safety of the plant.
Because the Process and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID) of industrial plants can be complex and difficult to read, an industrial plant may be visually represented by means of one or more graphics files created by engineers from the P&ID. A graphics file typically represents at least a portion of the physical layout of the plant. By calling up a specific graphics file, an operator can monitor a corresponding portion of the plant represented by that graphics file. However, a problem related to a particular material in one portion of the plant may be caused by something else at another portion of the plant, requiring operators to trawl through multiple graphics files to trace problems to their roots. Depending on the level of detail created or provided in the various graphics files, operators may even be required to memorize specific graphics files relating to specific portions of the plant if links between various graphics files are not sufficiently provided. A plant by multiple graphics files does not allow operators to have a general overview of larger processes within the plant, making it difficult for operators to understand more complex problems that may occur.